Vivian Apple never believed in the teachings of the Church of America. Not even when her parents converted. They did not believe that God America gave up, nor that the Rapture rapture is imminent which would raise all true believers to heaven, while doubters and sinners forever condemned would remain on Earth. Vivian did not believe. Until she comes from a party home in the morning the Rapture and the house finds empty. Her parents are gone and all that remained, are two holes in the ceiling of her bedroom. Suddenly she is an orphan. But her parents are actually risen? What is really behind the Church of America? Together with her best friend Harp and the warmhearted Peter dares Vivian a road trip across America, in search of the last family she has and to the search for truth.
I think Vivian vs. the Apocalypse is rightly on the YA leaderboard of Rolling Stone. It convinced me wholeheartedly. Katie Coyle demonstrated with this novel a critical, unbiased view of the American soul, which I have not yet been able to experience in this type. Their confrontation with the American belief by the Church of America is not only highly differentiated, but also very honest. It is as if she had even a US citizen found two crucial questions. How do we believe? How is the American Christianity characterized? If you want to Vivian vs. the Apocalypse as an answer to these questions understand this can only be: capital oriented, hypocritical and megalomaniac. According to the teachings of the Church of America, the American special favorites of God and capitalism are the only true way to honor him. The fact that these views are difficult to reconcile with the original Christian faith, does not matter, because to match the new faith there is a new prophet who wrote a new Bible: Beaton Frick. Almost the entire country pays tribute to him and defended his dogged dogma and by force if necessary, by the President to the parents of the protagonist and narrator Vivian Apple. Readers learn Vivian's parents (almost) do not know personally, but by Vivian's tales and the truths they reveal in the course of the story, I was still an impression of their relationship. I felt this as a strange, because it felt to me as if Vivian never heard right now. Usually a family should form a unit, but in the case of Apple, I could see no special emotional bond between parents and their child; as if Vivian rather an intruder in their relationship, as if they had never really allowed to enter. In retrospect, this strange relationship explained her decision to devote himself entirely to the Frick's faith and her daughter deliberately leave alone. So negative was that experience for Vivian, she was probably still the best thing that could have happened to her as a personality. Not only develops during road trips amazing and truly grow beyond itself, it also recognizes what a family really matters: to be there for each other.
Vivian vs. the Apocalypse I liked very well, because the author Katie Coyle arises is undaunted the big questions of life. It's emotional, exciting and thoughtful; shows what misguided belief can do, and stresses how important it is to discover for themselves what it means to be a good person and not blindly follow the doctrines of others. Despite some action-packed scenes of this novel on the whole is gentle and calm; Coyle writes not hastily, but relies on soft but meaningful recognition. Your courageous protagonist Vivian is a kind of modern Prometheus, anxious Americans to reveal the truth. Your journey is not yet finished with this book, there is a second band Vivian versus America, I would like to read in any case.
I think Vivian vs. the Apocalypse can be read by readers of all ages, although it is a YA novel. Faith, love, family these are issues that we deal with all, regardless of age.
